by John Dempsey
NEW YORK (Variety) – TV mogul Barry Diller plans to give
Court TV a run for its money with a digital network called Crime.
As part of his blueprint, Diller, chairman of USA Networks,
which owns USA, Sci Fi Channel, Trio and Newsworld Intl., has
bought the Web site Crime.com run by John Langley, creator of
“Cops” and co-founder of the Crime network. “Cops” is in its 12th
season on Fox.
The network, to kick off later this year on a date to be
determined, will include original series that provide, for
example, a daily look at how cops investigate crime scenes and a
weekly talk show about crime and its effect on society, featuring
“defense attorneys, law-enforcement officers, crime victims,
convicted criminals, filmmakers, writers and outspoken
activists,” according to the network.
Besides the original series, USA will funnel theatrical
pictures from its library of acquired titles, including
“Carlito's Way,” “Arlington Road,” “2 Days in the Valley,” “Dead
Man Walking” and “Con Air.” It would also buy reruns of older
fictional crime series to fill out some of its schedule.
“I'm convinced that the rollout of digital boxes is
inevitable,” said Stephen Chao, president of USA Cable.
He declined to talk about how much money USA plans to spend
on Crime, saying only that the network's expenditures will depend
on how fast cable operators are able to get the digital boxes
into people's homes.
Henry Schleiff, chairman and CEO of Court TV, said he's
flattered that USA Cable is creating Crime, because “it proves
that there's strong appeal to the genre covered by crime and
justice programming.”
If the public continues to resist the digital boxes, however,
Crime would likely cut back on its plans to produce first-run
programming because the network would reach such a small fraction
of cable homes that advertisers would have minimal interest in
buying spots on the schedule.
Court TV gets into 55 million homes and is considered one of
cable's major success stories of the past two years.
But Chao said crime shows have proved their popularity, not
just on Court TV but all over the dial, both on the broadcast
networks and on cable networks such as Discovery and A&E.
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